LESSONS NEVER LEARNED

05/06/2009

LESSONS NEVER LEARNED

With the meetings underway between the US leadership and that of Pakistan and Afghanistan it is time to review how we got here.

Late in 2001, a friend of mine that used to work at the Pantagon was visiting and he asked me where I thought Osama was and I told him, without hesitation, that i thought he was in the NWFP. And i gave him all my reasons for that belief.

Years before that at a Joint Forces Tactical Exercise, at Hulbert, one of the airmen had this comic strip up in his cubicle. It became my all time favorite Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

[Calvin and Hobbes are careening in their red wagon through the woods.]
CALVIN: "It's true, Hobbes, ignorance is bliss! Once you know things, you start seeing problems everywhere. And once you see problems, you feel like you ought to try to fix them. And fixing problems always seems to require personal change. And change means doing things that aren't fun! I say phooey to that! But if you're willfully stupid, you don't know any better, so you can keep doing whatever you like! The secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interest!"
HOBBES: "We're heading for that cliff!"
CALVIN: [covering his eyes] "I don't want to know about it."
CRASH!
HOBBES: "I'm not sure I can stand so much bliss."
CALVIN: "Careful! We don't want to learn anything from this."

So here it goes,

What does the United States now expect to happen in the Pakistan Afghanistan conflict, for years I have written on the topic, but it seems that the US politicians still believe in miracles, because their "think tanks" and the "specialists" and experts tell them they will happen. I had recently commented on the CNN blog, in a reply to Peter Bergen article "Pakistan Is Not Falling". CNN did not publish my comments even though by looking at the time stamps i would have been second or the third person to write. Same is the situation with our politicians they only listen to what they want to hear.

The United States WILL lose in Pakistan as it will lose in Afghanistan and has already lost in Iraq because

We failed to secure the borders of the countries, the Iraqi insurgencies were getting arms and support from Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, while we were going around in circles trying to figure out who was on our side, all sides were against us.

Same thing was happening in Afghanistan, by the time we decided to do anything about the open border with Pakistan, it was too late, we were losing in Afghanistan and Pakistan was also lost.

We supported the local politicians we could buy cheaply, regardless of their ability to deliver, we ended up creating more enemies who hated us for what their politicians were doing in our name. It was bad enough in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we supported Bhutto in Pakistan and ended up with a known criminal as the head of state there too.

WE ARE THE CHUMPS, why was Clinton even mentioning Baliwal , who the hell is he any way, how do we support democracy by meeting with him in any capacity.


Time and again I have mentioned the injustice and corruption in Pakistan, which is actually the same for many if not most of the regimes around the world, have we not learned that such regimes can not be supported and maintained, and as the corruption, injustice, bribery nepotism and elitism and the difference between the poor and the rich keeps growing will US also become more like a third world country?

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE